Reviews | Written by Ryan Pollard 25/08/2015

THIS IS COLIN BAKER

A tie-in piece to the recently released Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor—The Last Adventure, This is Colin Baker is a candid two-and-a-half hour interview with the Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker. Hosted by Big Finish maestro and Dalek/Cyberman voice Nicholas Briggs, this feature-length interview takes us through the life and career of Colin Baker, from numerous theatre productions to being in The Brothers to becoming the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who, as well as his own achievements of being an actor and author.

Listening to the interview is pretty much the equivalent of spending an evening with Colin Baker, getting to know and understand how he feels about acting, performing and how he genuinely feels about his whole experience on Doctor Who. But most of all, we get to know what Colin Baker is like as a human being, and Baker comes across as a very amiable and humorous chap; he’s entertaining, full of great stories to tell, and by the end you’d actually want to go out and have a pint with him.

We get to explore what his family was like and living with apparently headstrong parents, and how he was originally going to be a lawyer before wanting to be an actor instead. Theatre productions were where he started out, and it’s quite clear that Colin clearly loved doing theatre as he recalls many of the hilarious antics he performed during rehearsals. Colin goes on to discuss what it was like playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers, how people reacted to him, and how that was the part that stayed with him before Doctor Who came his way.

Regarding Doctor Who, you can hear that he clearly loved playing the Doctor, that he had huge enthusiasm for doing it when he started out, which makes it all the more saddening that his tenure came to an abrupt end. Unfortunately, Colin was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and given more care and attention his Doctor could’ve gone on to become one of the greatest Doctors ever, and through the power of Big Finish Productions he has somewhat achieved that. We also hear briefly about his experience on the universally-acclaimed Five(ish) Doctors Reboot and how it’s become the thing he’s most proud of. We also hear briefly about his time on I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!, and while it was the most bizarre thing to have happened at the time, it was one of the most challenging periods in Colin’s career, and he expresses how he wished he had stayed in longer.

This is Colin Baker is a fascinating examination of a man who has had many highs, as well as some lows, in his career, yet has always emerged with his head held high. To this day, he still loves Doctor Who and cares deeply about its fanbase, as evident in the interview, and is grateful for Big Finish for giving him the chance to further develop his Doctor in many new and exciting ways. Both he and Nicholas Briggs have a great budding relationship, and if you want to know more about the man who made a mark in Doctor Who history then this is definitely worth a listen.